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Comparison of The Garden of Love & The Ecchoing Green essay
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Comparison of The Garden of Love & The Ecchoing Green essay
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Compare how the ‘The Garden of Love’ & ‘The Ecchoing Green’ are portrayed.Although The Garden of Love and The Ecchoing Green are narrated by the opposing “States of
the Human Soul,” they both portray a sense of looming darkness that has either infiltrated the
speaker’s freedom or is awaiting to do so in the future.
The speaker introduces the Garden as a place where they “used to play.” The use of the past
tense reiterates to the reader that the narrator is now experienced, they have lost the innocence
that once allowed them the freedom and imagination of “play.” The Ecchoing Green similarly
uses the past tense - “were” - when the “old folk” reminisce about their own childhood innocence
and “joys.” Contrary to the Garden of Love, the “old folk” have naturally gained experience
through aging. However, the speaker in the Garden seems to have almost been forced to
become experienced as the “Chapel” has infiltrated their place of freedom. The loss of
innocence and strength in The Garden of Love, evokes a feeling of sadness in both the reader
and the speaker. This sadness is perhaps not for the loss of the narrator’s innocence, but for the
loss of the Garden of Love and the future innocence who will no longer be able to experience it
in the way the speaker once did, without the overbearing presence of the “Chapel.” Although
there is a similar sense of sadness in The Ecchoing Green due to the “old folk” only having their
memories of “joys” to rely on, there is a semantic field of happiness - “laugh,” “merry,” “cheerful”
- which almost disguises the slight melancholy. Moreover, the repetition of the verb “laugh”
brings another sound to the poem, adding to the euphony of the “bells’ cheerful sound” and the
birds who “sing louder.” Again, the noise of the “Ecchoing Green” seems to drown out any
gloom regarding aging and the “cares” that are associated.
In many of his poems, Blake refers to “the green”, a place that symbolises a child-like innocence
where the human soul is free to use their imagination. Moreover, village greens are places
usually unowned by an authority figure, thus it is a place without rules. In The Ecchoing Green,
the “green” seems to have taken the place of school, insinuating that children should be able to
learn from nature instead of rules made by those in higher power. In The Garden of Love, this
setting completely juxtaposes with the image that Blake paints the “Chapel” as. The speaker
reads “‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door;” which portrays the rules of religion as endless due to
the ambiguity of not knowing exactly what “Thou shalt not” do. The statement over the door is
perhaps a reference to the ten commandments, a set of rules that people should live by.
Therefore Blake could be saying that rules should not dictate someone’s moral compass and
the transition from innocence to experience should happen through the decisions made, the
experiences had and the wisdom gained by the individual. Experiences are gained through
“play,” the complete antithesis of rules decided by a higher power. Blake portrays this message
through both the poems as the children in The Ecchoing Green are unburdened by the rules of
the schooling system and so seem “merry.” However, the children are playing “sports” which are
arguably games but with rules. Although this contradicts the idea that the “green” is a place
without rules, the rules seem to have been made by the children themselves. This is shown by
the possessive pronoun “our” in regards to “sports,” thus showing the reader that children
should make their own regulations and not be encumbered by rules set on them by those
deemed more experienced.
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